The council released its official results on Thursday evening which showed Allan Arnold, Andrea De Vries, Lisa Tou McNaughton and Barry Stewart had locked up the final four spots.
Ian Reeves was unsuccessful after a promising start in progress results went south, while Lynley McKerrow, David Meades and Karl Herman all fell short.
"And then just before the pizza arrived I had a phone call from [council deputy electoral officer] Michael Morris and he let me know that I was successful and so it was great. It was a great night."
She said the council had an opportunity to be high-performing and inclusive with its decision making.
Ms Tou McNaughton described the wait for final results as "a little bit tenuous" but was feeling good about the outcome.
"I’m very excited that there’s diversity around the table and more of a reflection of our communities and the different communities within our communities," she said.
Mr Stewart said he was relieved to have finished 12th — the final spot available at council.
The second-term councillor backed up a 26-vote margin in the 2022 election with a buffer of just 21 votes this time around.
"I’m really pleased, because I want to see things finished.
"It’s the main reason why I wanted to get back in," he said.
For Ian Reeves, the election did not have a fairytale ending after he dropped from 11th place during progress results to out-of-contention in the wash-up.
Now aged 71, he did not think he would stand again and said he was disappointed by the result.
Being on the cusp of election was difficult, but he had not let the events of the past week get him down, he said.
"It hasn’t been too bad for me because to be honest ... I’m a pretty optimistic person.
"I have a pretty good life, so I don’t have a lot to moan about. In fact I don’t have anything to moan about really."
The final voter turnout for Invercargill was just over 46%, which was down on previous elections.
The mayoral race was won by Tom Campbell by a margin of more than 1700 votes.
Final results for ICC
Mayoralty: Tom Campbell 6948, Alex Crackett 5202, Ian Pottinger 2322, Ria Bond 1803, Tom Morton 711, Andrew Clark 291, Stevey Chernishov 229, Gordon McCrone 66.
Councillors (12 vacancies): Steve Broad 11503, Alex Crackett 10056, Marcus Lush 8396, Grant Dermody 8321, Trish Boyle 7457, Ria Bond 7373, Darren Ludlow 7371, Ian Pottinger 7195, Allan Arnold 6105, Andrea De Vries 5920, Lisa Tou McNaughton 5816, Barry Stewart 5710, Ian Reeves 5689, Lynley McKerrow 5608, David Meades 5414, Karl Herman 4788, Terry King 4691, Chris Dawson 4510, Jay Coote 4137, Panie Coote 3904, Tony Van Der Lem 3749, Tom Morton 3268, Carl Heenan 2979, Dan O’Connell 2320, Amanda Laurie 2128, Noel Peterson 1301, Carol Jasperse 1005.
LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.
